Guerrilla Games director Angie Smets leaves for new role at PlayStation

24 April, 2023

Horizon Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West developer Guerrilla Games has confirmed that its co-studio director, Angie Smets, is departing to lead PlayStation Studios‘ development strategy.

In a blog published today (April 24), Guerrilla shared that Smets will be moving to work as head of development strategy at its parent company, PlayStation Studios.

During her 20 years at Guerrilla, Smets served as executive producer for Horizon Zero Dawn and last year’s follow-up Forbidden West, along with the studio’s Killzone series.

“These past two decades at Guerrilla have been an absolute dream,” shared Smets. “I feel privileged to have worked alongside some of the smartest and coolest people in the industry. I’m so grateful for everything I’ve learned alongside all the other Guerrillas. We have accomplished so much as a team, and I’m incredibly proud of all the games we’ve shipped together.”

Smets went on to give a “special shoutout” to technical director Michiel van der Leeuw and art director Jan-Bart van Beek.

Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West. Credit: Guerrilla Games.

“It feels like just yesterday that we were figuring out how to make and ship the first Killzone,” said Smets. “Little did we know that we would eventually lead Guerrilla together. You’ve become like brothers to me, and there’s no way to thank you enough. I will miss you dearly.”

Looking ahead, Guerrilla has outlined that Beek will be joined by Joel Eschler and Hella Schmidt in directing the studio, which will be “expanding the world of Horizon with Aloy’s next adventure” and an untitled online game.

Last week (April 19), Guerrilla Games launched Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, downloadable content that took protagonist Aloy to the ruined city of Los Angeles.

NME‘s experience with the expansion found that it offered a “beautiful but barren” journey for Aloy, with a noteworthy main questline marred by a lack of things to do outside of that.

In other gaming news, Honkai: Star Rail is now available to download ahead of its launch on Wednesday (April 26).

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